The Future for 'Fortnite'

The Beginning

Fortnite has just in recent months became a household name. Regardless of who you are, you have heard the name, but few people realize its origins. Epic Games developed one of the biggest game series from the mid 2000s to to early 2010s, Gears of War. After Gears of War 3, the devs at Epic were looking to do something new. This is where the idea for Fortnite was born in 2011. The first trailer for Fortnite was shown at VGA 2011 as a survival shooter game. No one could have guessed what it would become by 2017.

Battle Royal Craze

Debuting only about 9 months ago, Fortnite Battle Royal has became a huge power house in the gaming community. Fortnite's genre in general (Battle Royal) is booming right now among gamers all around the world on every platform available. With its smooth game mechanics, fun look and feel, and the excitement of trying to outlive 99 others all wrapped into one, it has became one of the biggest games to come out this past year, if not in recent gaming history. Oh and not to mention, for FREE. Fortnite's potential to grow is probably higher than any other game in history and Epic should take advantage of this before too many competitors are on their tail coats trying to dethrone them.

Fortnite's biggest advantage is a no brainer to me, they listen to their fans. They have weekly updates that keep players engaged and entertained. They have found a way to make a game kids and adults alike have fell in love with. The quick pace and wide variety of play styles keep people coming back for more and more every time. The audience is probably one of the most diverse, from young kids playing for fun to even hip-hop star Drake hoping on to play a few rounds with Ninja, who is said to be one of the best Fortnite players.

Besides the basics of the game mode, there are also weekly and daily challenges to complete through out each season. Overall the game is free with in-game offers that enhance your character's appearance but nothing to give you an upper hand in game which keeps the playing field very open. Also, they change up game modes every now and then. Right now there is a Blitz mode for solo and squad games and a 20 man team mode. This keeps Fortnite interesting and keeps the experience from going stale. Epic has found the perfect formula in my opinion. As of February 8, 2018, Fortnite had 3.4 million players playing all at one time. That is a huge accomplishment.

Save the World

Now I'm going into some unfamiliar waters, Save the World. I have personally never played it but from streams and game clips I've watched it looks just as good as Battle Royal.

The general idea from what I've gathered is to build a fort and defend it from aliens/monsters. I'm sure there is more to that but I haven't yet played it so I have no insight. But I look forward to buying it soon even though there are rumors that it'll soon be free.

Epic once again did something I've never really seen. Not sure if it was on purpose or not, but they basically created a playable commercial. They created an advertisement unlike any other I've seen. They promoted Save the World with Fortnite: Battle Royal. I would have personally never even looked at Save the World as a game I wanted to play, but when you release a free game that is beating games that people are buying you kind of capture people's attention. I praise Epic for their marketing and quickness to undo their original idea to jump on a trend and absolutely destroying the competition.

The Possible Future for 'Fortnite' (Opinion Based)

The future for Fortnite is really up to Epic at this point. I'd say they are on the right track but there is always room for growth. The Battle Royal mode is great but I can see Save the World being incredibly successful. There are a few things I would like to see in the full game.

• Keep different game modes such as sniper shoot out and 50 v 50 on the game permanently much like other games do with their game modes.
• Keep updating on a weekly basis and keep listening to player input.
• Introduce a custom game mode where you can create your own rules and control weapon drops.
• Integrate Save the World's story into Battle Royal (If they aren't already).
• Hold contest for more skilled players for rare prizes, v-bucks, or store items.
• Include more exclusive characters by partnering with other companies like they did with Marvel for the Gauntlet mode.

My list for changes and recommendations are usually a bit longer so the fact I could only come up with 5 is saying something great for Fortnite, it is already an incredible game. Soon there is going to be a lot more competition. I don't want to watch my favorite Battle Royal title fall under due to being unprepared for the near future.

My Personal Thoughts and Experience

Overall I love the idea of Fortnite both in the Battle Royal mode and the Save the World mode. The impact this game is huge and I can't remember the last game that came out that had such a massive following right off the bat. I had only played Fortnite a couple times before I switched over to PUBG, another popular Battle Royal game. I played PUBG for months, through the horrible lag on the fastest internet to possibly get, through the countless time I was killed at #2 by a cheater on the other side of the map shooting me through mountains, or the endless crashing every other round. I switched back to Fortnite for obvious reasons but I never respected it as a game till my second time around. This game is well polished and maintained almost perfectly. The games are unpredictable and action packed till the very last second. To master this game takes true skill and time. In my personal opinion this will go down as one of the best games to come out in this era of gaming. I can no longer play PUBG without wanting to quit and play Fortnite due to the effort Epic is putting in that Bluehole either can't or don't desire to match. Bluehole suing Epic for basically destroying their player base and beating them is a true testament to how big of a sore loser Bluehole truly is, needless to say that lawsuit won't slow the tide for Fortnite or its fans. Fortnite is just a superior game in my honest opinion.